EPIZOOTIOLOGICAL SITUATION OF АFRICAN SWINE FEVER IN EUROPE

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) is a viral disease of domestic pigs and wild boar. Due to the very serious socioeconomic consequences, the disease isone of the most important ones nowadays. African swine fever is an enzootic disease in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Sardinia, and TransCaucasus countries. Aft er its occurrence in Georgia in 2007, ASF spread to Armenia and Russian Federation, and in 2008. to Azerbaijan. Since then,its progressive moving toward the west has been recorded. Despite the number of undertaken preventive and control measures in the EuropeanUnion (EU), ASF has been still spreading. During 2017, the disease has been reported in domestic pigs in Estonia, Italy-Sardinia, Latvia, Lithuania,Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. ASF cases in domestic pigs have also been reported in Moldova in 2017. Th e number of diagnosed cases in wild boarin 2017 is much higher than in domestic pigs. ASF outbreak in wild boar in the Czech Republic well describes the possible viral „jump“ into a newregion. Th e source of infection hasn’t been confi rmed yet, but it is common that such leaps are due to either swill feeding or improperly disposal of food rather than to the animal movements. Since the lack of eff ective vaccine makes eradication even more diffi cult, the prevention of viral entry into the new areas is of the most importance. With the same aim, since 2011. the surveillance of ASF has been implemented in Serbia.